“Are you ready?”
Viktor nodded, satisfied. Bodie studied the man. “How are you involved in all this?”
“You step into my playground, I beat you down.”
Bodie remained silent, gauging everything. Yasmine broke off her embrace with Cross, the two now standing close and staring at each other as if trying to rekindle the best of memories. Jemma climbed out of the car with Gunn. Bodie started forward.
Viktor stopped him with a raised, open hand. “I will take your compass too.”
Bodie closed his eyes briefly. The Bratva were nothing if not thorough. A CIA leak could have fed them the information. It also occurred to him that a Chinese informant might be their source. And if that was possible, any of the street gangs who’d heard the initial broadcast about the statues and taken an interest could have passed on information. Once you considered it, the possibilities were thick.
Still, passing along the compass would give them more time, and they had the photograph to study.
Bodie took his time retrieving the compass and then started walking again, passing right by a bald man with the spindly arms. He handed the tissue-wrapped relic to Viktor.
“It better be the right one, Bodie. I know Carl Kirke collected more than one of these.”
“It is. How did you find out?”
“I can search the records, just like you. For decades now, modern technology has built incredible transparency into everything that anyone does. We can be seen and we can be tracked. Ironically, it is only the old-timers who have refused to move on, and who are safest from the modern world and its surveillance.”
Viktor opened the tissue and regarded the compass. Bodie got his first real look at it. Considering its age, it held up well, the wooden base still gleaming, the bronze runes still etched perfectly around the side. Viktor held it up so that the man behind could photograph it.
“Precaution.” He grinned a white-toothed beam at Bodie.
Bodie gave it straight back, with interest. He was pleased to see Viktor blinking away his surprise at the gleaming display.
Viktor rewrapped the compass. “Our business is done. I am a man of my word.” He held a hand out, indicating the battered SUV. “The rest of you may go.”
Cassidy didn’t move a muscle. Instead she studied Viktor’s men. Nobody moved. A chill wind speared down the mountain passes and between them. Snow drifted off the top of nearby peaks and rocky formations, reminding Cassidy of spindrift thrown by a restless sea. Finally, it was Cross who broke the spell.
“So now I know where to find you.”
“I would not recommend that you come knocking.” Yasmine smiled. “But I wish that you would.”
“They’d never see me. And you’ll never know until I’m right beside you.”
“Ah, yes, I remember how good you were, now.”
“You never thought about me?” Cross sounded dejected.
“Don’t be silly. Of course I did. Every damn day. You, Eli Cross, are the one that got away. Everyone has one, am I right? You were mine.”
“And you…” Cross held out a hand. “Were mine. Often remembered, never retold.”
She took the tips of his fingers in her hands. “Yes, Eli. Because the memories are too precious, and too fragile.”
“And too devastating.”
Sadness fell across both their faces. Viktor, observing the conversation, became increasingly impatient before he finally issued an irrefutable order. “We are leaving. Come, now.”
They walked apart, backing away. Cross looked like he couldn’t tear his gaze from her. Still, he hadn’t noticed Bodie’s plight. It was the first time in Bodie’s recollection that Cross’s mind hadn’t been completely in the game.
Viktor raised his Uzi. “But be warned,” he said to the others. “If I see any of you again, the result will not be so friendly.”
Cassidy saluted. “Count on it.”
Viktor regarded her for a moment, as if debating whether to escalate the situation. Then he shivered, pulled his suit jacket tightly around him, and spun. “Let’s get out of this terrible place. I can stand it no more.”
Bodie waited until the last possible moment. The distant thump of an approaching chopper finally registered with some of the Bratva before it came into view, shooting across the top of the nearby highest peak, blasting through drifting snow, its rotors hurling icy particles in all directions. In moments, a large black Predator was hovering over them, bristling with weapons aimed at the Bratva.
“You can go!” a familiar female voice cried over the chopper’s loudspeaker. “And leave Bodie right there.”
Guns were aimed upward by the Bratva soldiers. Viktor and the spindle-armed man shielded their eyes. Bodie carefully backed away from his captors.
“We got you covered!” Heidi shouted. “We could shoot you all. Don’t be stupid. Just leave.”
It was a gamble, Bodie knew. If the gunfire started, the Bratva would probably lose, but casualties would be taken on both sides. Hopefully a Bratva soldier like Viktor would see he was covered from an elevated angle as well as having threats to the side.
Bodie continued to back up.
It took a while but Viktor finally waved his arms to send his minions back to their cars. Four minutes passed before the road was clear. Bodie used the time to converse with Heidi.
“Just drive back to the runway,” she said with grit in her voice. “We’re on the wrong friggin’ side of all this now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The plane journey that followed was not as comfortable as the last.
It transpired that the paragliders had been piloted by a Chinese Special Forces team who also tortured and killed Carl Kirke. This news came from the surveillance net that Heidi had set up around Kirke’s house when the team infiltrated it. The same surveillance that had originally warned them of the approaching force. It was safe to say that, by now, this Chinese faction knew as much as the Moroccan Bratva and Bodie’s team about Atlantis, even though only one group held the real compass in their hands.
DC was furious. The Chinese government denied all knowledge of the incursion and consequent attack. But they would, wouldn’t they? Heidi spent precious hours fielding time-wasting questions from DC stuffed shirts wanting to vent their gratuitous wrath. By the time she finished, their plane was among the clouds with nowhere to go.
“So we took a hit,” she said when she’d finally found time for them. “Mr. Kirke got himself killed and you met the Moroccan Bratva, an offshoot of the friendly bunch who tried to abduct Jack Pantera’s family. You lost the compass”—she sucked at her teeth in disappointment—“but you redeemed yourselves by taking a photo of it. Clearly, the best course of action here is to let Lucie examine the photos. Jemma?”
Bodie bristled at the rebuke. It wasn’t simply that Heidi was correct; it wasn’t that she deliberately ignored the circumstances; it was mostly that none of them wanted to be under her thumb anyway. They were here through blackmail, and they were doing their goddamn best.
“If you think we’re below par,” he said quietly, “call in a fucking special forces team to help you.”
“Ah, but then you guys will be superfluous and headed to prison. Is that acceptable?”
Bodie gritted his teeth. “So much for the bond I thought we’d made.”
Heidi inclined her head. “Look, I realize you’re not soldiers and don’t have military training. I understand you’re doing your best. You just… have to do it better.”
A minute later and the pictures on Jemma’s cell phone had been uploaded to the plane’s computer. Lucie approached the screen and started to take notes.
“And as for you”—Heidi stared down the aisle straight at Cross—“is there anything we need to know?”